Exporting from Bookends to BibTeX

[drh]

I'm having some problems with the Bookends export feature to BibTeX. I'm running v8.1.1.

First, I've imported my entire database from EndNote 8 (XML). That worked fine with a few minor errors.

Second, I set my Bookends Preferences for BibTeX with everything checked.

Then, I choose Biblio > Bibliography Formatter... using the format of BibTeX "as BibTeX" going to disk.

Several problems occur. The most simple is that the hash (#) character is not escaped. For example, if you have title = "We are #1", the BibTeX equivalent is title = "We are \#1".

The second problem is that the some latin1 characters are not converted into TeX correctly. For example, ø is converted to \{o} which generates an error.

Also, the output file is encoded as MacOSRoman and not UTF8.

I tried to resolve this by unchecking the "Convert to TeX" option. It works fine, except that the file is MacOSRoman and not UTF8. So, I bring the file up in TextWrangler, switch it to UTF8, and save it. Then, it works.

This leads me to my final question: What is the recommended what to run a Bookends to BibTeX conversion?


Thanks.

[Jon]

Several problems occur. The most simple is that the hash (#) character is not escaped. For example, if you have title = "We are #1", the BibTeX equivalent is title = "We are \#1".

Bookends doesn't escape that. I guess it should.

The second problem is that the some latin1 characters are not converted into TeX correctly. For example, ø is converted to \{o} which generates an error.

OK.

Also, the output file is encoded as MacOSRoman and not UTF8.

I tried to resolve this by unchecking the "Convert to TeX" option. It works fine, except that the file is MacOSRoman and not UTF8. So, I bring the file up in TextWrangler, switch it to UTF8, and save it. Then, it works.

I think Bookends assumes BibTeX is MacRoman. I'd have to check.

This leads me to my final question: What is the recommended what to run a Bookends to BibTeX conversion?

You're doing it correctly. Sounds like a few minor omissions or errors. The MacRoman encoding is the only real issue.

If you find errors that need correction, you should contact us directly at

support@sonnysoftware.com

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

Yes, BibTeX is converted to MacRoman. Is this *not* what people want? Would they rather it was output as UTF-8? It could be easily done (but no one has asked for it thus far)...

Jon
Sonny Software

P.S. # is now escaped, and ø is converted to \'{o} (this looks to be correct based on my references). These fixes will appear in the next update.

[drh]

Honestly, I don't know what it should be. I was expecting UTF-8 because the database is in UTF-16 (right?).

In LaTeX, you can use inputenc to select your content encoding, so whatever encoding will support your database is probably the right answer:

\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage[applemac]{inputenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

some doc here.
some LaTeX versions don't support unicode but there's software for it here.

i'm far from a LaTeX expert though...

[Jon]

How the db is stored is irrelevant. We can export in any encoding. If anyone else wants to weigh in I'll listen. But since BibTeX is an ASCII convention, I think MacRoman is appropriate. But as I said, I'll listen...

Jon
Sonny Software

[ablaze]

Would it be possible to chose set the export encoding in the prefs? That would be nice.

[ablaze]

I don't know, Jon, if you know the "Great, big list of LaTeX symbols". Perhaps you could check back there and see if you're missing something. You can find it here: http://cs.bilgi.edu.tr/pages/CSDN/symbols.pdf

[Jon]

Thanks for the list.

I suppose the default could be UTF-8 *unless* you have checked Convert to TeX in the BibTeX preferences (this would make sense, I think, and avoid another independent preference setting).

Jon
Sonny Software